Bluestem

Monday, March 9, 2015

So, 14 years ago we bought this house. It was almost a 100
years old at the time. Now it’s well over. It was built in 1908 or 1910,
depending on which source you believe. We are finally getting to the point
where all the work N does on it is “nice to have” instead of “really, this
needs to happen.” We had a visitor come look at the house recently. He grew up
here with his 8 brothers and sisters, and a cousin who stayed for a few years.

I felt a bit bad. There’s little left of the original
layout. The floor is mostly original downstairs. None of the original closets or
stairs remain. His parents came by maybe 10 years ago, so we’d heard some of
the history already. They lived here 30 years, from the 1960s to the 1990s. We’ve
had other former owners (from earlier) come by, too. It’s a house that inspires
loyalty, it would seem. Certainly the garden has undergone at least as much
change, too. It had hardly anything when we arrived. Just a few large trees, a
couple lilacs. Not much else.

Anyway. If you would like some stylish shoes like these,
here’s how to get them. Buy an old house. Work on it constantly for years. Wear
the shoes a lot. And that’s about it.

Yes, I did take this photo last summer. When there was grass. It's not like I don't have blog ideas. I just don't seem to prioritize the time to write.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

I know about real hoarding. I’ve seen the TV shows. More personally,
I know a woman who deals with real hoarding at her mother’s houses (there are
two). The attempts to clear out one house and get it on the market. The citations
from the village. One house condemned. Fix it up before the village tears it
down. Hoarding spilling into the yard. It’s painful just to hear the stories. They
did eventually find the body of the cat they knew had died several years ago. But
the struggle never ends, because apparently it’s very difficult to cure
hoarding behavior.

Then there’s pet hoarding, which is awful. Our guinea pig
rescue group just took in 50 pigs from one such situation. They aren’t well
socialized, so they are hard to find homes for.

Hoarding in my family is much more manageable. My mom has
50 or 60 jars of jam in the basement at any given time. Nice, tidy hoarding.

My hoarding centers around books. I finally went around
and did a rough count in our house, out of curiosity. I did get rid of a few
hundred children’s books last summer, so that helped a little. Plus we have two
Little Free Libraries within walking distance, so sometimes I can stick a few
books in there. Granted, sometimes I have to bring a new one home, too. It’s
only fair.

Starting upstairs, Boo is a minimalist and a big
re-reader, so she only has her 50 favorites in her room. Nea is a bit of a
hoarder of everything, plus she’s the downstream book-catcher from the older
sibling, so no surprise that she has circa 650.

The master bedroom has 175 in a bookshelf, and 130 on the
floor/nightstand. Yes, that looks just as well-organized as it sounds.

Ok, so we have a couple book-free rooms. The sunroom and
dining room have none. There are only 5 of the most used cookbooks in the
kitchen. The other cookbooks are in the living room, with the gardening books
and some kid books. Total living room – about 450.

There’s some board and early childhood books I couldn’t
bring myself to give away, boxed up in the basement. Let’s say 300.

And that leaves the study. N finished these bookshelves
awhile back. There’s books in the cabinets underneath, too, where the board
games were supposed to go. Yup. That’s another 1260 or so.

Grand total? Just under 3000 books, roughly. That’s in
the realm of normal. Right?

Oddly, I find myself at the library at least weekly.

I did some navel gazing not too long ago and decided that
my need to be surrounded by books appeals to my most optimistic and pessimistic
hopes and fears.

Best case scenario: I live a life of leisure and have
time to read for hours a day!

Worst case scenario: society collapses, and all
technology is lost. It’s not safe outside and hurrah! Nothing to do but read
all day and wait for the end! See, now where will all you e-book types be then,
huh? That’s right. Pillaging the library, fighting over Danielle Steele and
Louis L’Amour paperbacks. Ha. Suckers.

Friday, October 24, 2014

I'm not sure why I get so much pleasure out of this, but look! My library books match what I claim I'm reading, visible to you on the left.Guess which one is for my work book club. Nope. Wrong. Guess which one is for my best-ever book club. OK, you may have gotten that one right. Maybe.

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Sometimes new hobbies just show up overnight, don’t they?
There was discussion on Facebook about finding and raising monarchs, and I was
bemoaning how I planted some milkweed two years ago and still hadn’t found any.
Next thing I know, a friend drops two caterpillars off, and she and I find two
more in my garden immediately. Then I found a bunch more. Then I gave some to
friends to raise, since I figure if you are trying to save a species from
extinction, you should definitely recruit members to your cause.

If
you’d like to learn more, I highly recommend this book: How to raise monarch
butterflies: a step-by-step guide for kids by Carol Pasternak.

Here’s
who we found, in order of appearance in our lives:

Owen

Rosie (taken by the Nash family)

Daisy (taken by the Slusher family)

Sophie-Robert

Izzy (taken by the Long family)

Smally

Junior One

Junior Two

Stuccy

Beanie (Raised himself outside. Made a chrysalis on our bean teepee. Given to my dad as a birthday present.)

Buck

Timber

Flash

California (from an egg!)

Johnny Test (also from an egg! Born today!)

Junior One, Junior Two, and Stuccy

And a swallowtail named Ziggy. Still in chrysalis at press time. Rescued off some dying
dill in my garden.

It’s amazing how quickly they grow up. From a tiny
egg-dot to a caterpillar almost the size of your little finger in two weeks. At
that point they eat around the clock and can finish off one and a half milkweed
leaves a day! And those are big leaves. Then another 10-14 days in a chrysalis and VIOLA (ha), a butterfly
that’s ready to party.

Beanie, cleverly hiding among the pole beans. That's him in the green with golden accents.

So go plant some milkweed. The flowers are pretty and
smell nice and will attract all sorts of strange insects you’ve never seen in
your garden before. Surely you have a bit of room behind the garage?

Thursday, July 17, 2014

So, Nea is 10 now. She's having a great year at summer school (ESY). Finally a teacher who is teaching! He's reading real literature with them and introducing new concepts. He's doing fractions and teaching them about improper fractions using visual representations. Then he made some YouTube videos to show us parents what that means! Unbelievable.

This is, shockingly, Nea's 7th year in ESY (we skipped last year because we were traveling). And it's the first year I'm not disgusted with what a waste of time it is. She has always enjoyed going, though, and she gets a little speech therapy every week (45 minutes, half of her school year IEP amount), so we kept sending her.

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At home we've been reading Junie B. Jones, gearing up for a book club with Nea's best friend, who lives across the street. Nea is reading chapter books! There was great rejoicing! And she's very excited about book group. Let me just tell you, when your friend helps motivate your child to read, that's the best kind of friend. Thank you, Beth! You are a gem.

Some people don't like Junie B. Jones books because they are written in the voice of a kindergartener with poor grammar. Poor past tense verbs, etc. What gets me is that the teacher doesn't know the difference between "good" and "well." So annoying. But if we weren't reading this book, I wouldn't know how well Nea understands adverbs! So instead of reading what the book says ("So listen very careful."), Nea reads, "So listen very carefully." And my heart sings.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Well, I’m hanging up my swim cap, biking shoes, and running
shorts. Not really, but I have vowed to stop the madness. No more triathlons. And
I’m feeling just fine with that. I don’t enjoy the swim, and I don’t love the
run. I can always sign up for a century bike ride if I feel the need for a
goal.

I did almost as well this year as I did my first year. Less than
a minute longer overall. I had a longer transition time in T1 (swim to bike
transition). My swim was 4 seconds slower, bike leg was about 30 seconds
slower, the run about 15 seconds slower. I did post a record T2, though!
Transitioned from bike to run in just over 3 minutes. Go me. All in all, I’m in
as good shape as I was 3 years ago, which is pretty good for a mid-40s person. And
actually, my run was slightly faster than last year, which it damn well ought
to be, with all the training I managed to fit in. All 3 years my run was 32
minutes and change. I'm not fast, but I’m really quite consistent.

Funniest moment: I nearly missed my starting wave for no
good reason. Was puttering about, chatting with strangers. My orange-capped
group was in the water, waiting for the horn, when I realized. So, bad start
position, in the outside back. No wonder it was 4 seconds slower. Great weather,
though. The water was in the 70s! I expected icebergs after the winter we just
had, but it was nice. Glad not to have a wetsuit.

And although once again I was beaten by two women in their
70s, I did beat 5 women aged 17 and 18. So, ha. That’s something, anyway. And I’m
proud to say that I am of average speed, among women who were in this sprint
triathlon. A very friendly and enthusiastic group to be in, and I’m proud to
have finished it three times.